News

The Homestar Energy Efficiency Retrofit Program could be the government’s cash for clunkers for homes equivalent. Read more about the offering that is in the works at this link.

In this writer’s humble opinion, the incentives offered may be low compared to the real cost of any significant and holistic energy efficiency upgrade in a home—especially in a cold climate. However, it’s a starting point.

Treehugger just posted a short article about Passive House in the U.S. See it here. Meanwhile, BuildingGreen.com offers an article on whether or not Passive House can revolutionize the way we build here.

Over the course of the last month, we posted a number of updates that illustrate progress on site, as well as some of the design solutions for this high-performance home. Make sure to visit often, or follow Passive House in the Woods on Twitter at http://twitter.com/phitw

The building shell is almost complete at this point. It’s still wearing a skirt of tarps to protect the excavation around it. We look forward to exterior insulation and windows within the next two months. These items will help complete the shape of the building. We are looking to offer tours of the construction site—potentially in May or June. We’ll make an announcement once we have a firm date. Stay tuned.

We’ve been invited to spend a day with community leaders in Montevideo, MN to introduce Passive House, and discuss its potential for affordable housing and other projects in this Minnesota community. Thanks to Pat Moore of CURE and Kevin Hein for the invitation.

Credit for this post should go to Stephan Tanner, my business parter for commercial projects. This is something that comes up in many discussions with clients. I thought it’d be worth posting:

Given that a building is essentially a system of components, it is important to review the entire system when making ROI calculations or level of performance decisions. A review of individual components may not accurately reflect the whole.

A quick metaphor to illustrate what we bring to your retrofit or new construction project:

Think of individual components or decisions as a serious of balls that you are juggling. The success of the project will be measured by the lowest flying ball you throw. If you throw one or more substantially higher than all the others, you may overspend in these categories. TE Studio’s job is to help you throw all balls to the same height to make sure we meet a common baseline of performance, and do it in a cost effective way.

The Passive House in the Woods is steadily growing, and it’s wearing a skirt these days 😉 The photo shows the Southwest corner. The ICF walls are complete up to the top of the second floor. The roof is scheduled for next week. In the meanwhile, the garage is also coming out of the ground—just to the North of the house.

We are tracking the progress more closely on the house’s own website. This page also holds information on the team members that assisted with the design and construction. So head on over if you like and follow this unique project. It’s also on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/phitw

I’ll be lecturing on Passive House at the U of M again this year. Jim Lutz was kind enough to invite me back to the architecture and ecology class. The lecture will be held on Tuesday, April 6 – 11.15 to 12.30, in Rapson 100 at the School of Architecture.

Passive House Minnesota now has a website. Albeit with minimal content, but it’s there. We hope to expand on it in the near future with content from our first meeting this month. Going forward, this will be the place for information regarding Passive House in our region.

The Passive House in the Woods blog is now online. We’ll still tweak it a bit and naturally add content as we move forward. In the future, however, there is now one place where you can check on updates regarding the project.